By Anderson Clayton, Guest Columnist
On Aug. 11, I met with a packed room at the Cherokee County Democratic Party. Seeing how many folks came out was heartwarming. The stories shared about the issues facing our communities were much less so.
That night, I met a federal employee working on Hurricane Helene relief, who’s afraid she’s about to lose her job. Times are hard. Folks feel like they’re getting written off.
When there are 15,960 people registered to vote in Cherokee County and only 2,990 of them are Democrats, the cynics and consultants are eager to tell me I’m not getting “the biggest bang for my buck” by investing time, energy and resources in rural communities like these. I disagree.
We’ve got to earn votes everywhere if we are going to push statewide Democrats over the finish line – and yes, that means in Cherokee County. I know the vast majority of us agree on what’s important: keeping our families healthy and safe, taking care of our neighbors in need, treating hard-working folks with dignity and respect and giving our kids their best possible shot at a better life. Our shared values extend beyond just registered Democrats.
I grew up in rural North Carolina – real rural, not some former farmland that’s now suburbs. I grew up around the most generous and resilient people, who would stop off the side of the road to give you a jump, make you soup when you’re sick, give you the shirt off their back if you needed it … only to know that some of them would go to the ballot box and vote for the folks making it harder for their hungry neighbors to eat and sick neighbors to get the medical care they need.
About 17% of all Cherokee County residents rely on government assistance to put food on the table, including full-time workers who put in 40 hours a week for a wage that doesn’t even lift them above the poverty line. I couldn’t vote for anyone who was content letting kids in my community go to bed hungry to fund tax breaks for corporations and billionaires.
Nearly one in every three people – 31% – in Cherokee County get health care through Medicaid; 1,548 are children. It doesn’t matter that North Carolina Republicans and Democrats worked together to expand Medicaid in our state, save rural hospitals and make sure people in our communities weren’t going broke just for getting sick. National Republicans have cut funding for Medicaid – and the only North Carolina Republican who stood up for you in Washington was ostracized by his party and announced that he won’t seek re-election. We deserve better than this.
One way you can make a difference is to check your voter registration. There are 54 registered voters in Cherokee County who have been caught in the crossfire of the Republican attempt to overturn the 2024 N.C. Supreme Court election – 126 valid registrations that could be canceled because of faulty record-keeping issues that weren’t the voter’s fault.
Regardless of your party, if you want to make sure your voice is heard, please cast your ballot this year by going to ncdp.org/repair to see if you’re one of those 126.
To my 2,990 Cherokee County Democrats – I’m fighting for you. To the more than 12,000 other registered voters in Cherokee, I hope you’ll join me in taking on the issues that really matter for those we care about, and help me send folks to Raleigh – and to Washington – that will do right by us.
Anderson Clayton is chair of the N.C. Democratic Party. Visit ncdp.org.